Tempo Doeloe Gelukkig Nieuwjaar/Happy New Year

Hey Syphilites,

This is Old Jakarta - The writing says 'Happy New Year' in Dutch. So yes, happy new year!!!

See you here!

I don't do drugs. I am drugs.

I don't do drugs. I am drugs.
Originally uploaded by opiumshark

Hmhm

Hunter S. Thompson drinking rum and a bottle of Dutch Amstel beer

This is a very old photo of Hunter S. Thompson, writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I was looking at it again in a photo book about him and noticed that the beer he is drinking is Dutch Amstel. Not so special, until you realise that this was shot in the mid-60s in Puerto Rico. Bit more random? I thought so. 

sex-workers work-notice

Hey Syphilites,


Possibly one of the weirdest and strangest work-notices you will ever come across. I'm a bit disturbed. (if the photo doesn't seem to load sometimes - find it here.)

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4770192

The full title of the photo is: 'A notice to sex workers in the lockers area, At The Top of The Town brothel, Flinders Street, Melbourne, 15 October 2009' and was taken by Dave Tacon. This is his website.


Perhaps not what you'd expect to find in the National Library of Australia digital collection. But what a photo. Such and everyday setting and we all know and have experienced the 'power' of passive aggressive work notices, but this...


I'm speechless.


The note reads:


'Ladies Please note


A standard booking incudes:
- Body Contact Massage
- Oral
- Intercourse


If clients are able they can come twice in a 45 minute booking.


Thank you
Jo


*Some clients have complained that they are not allowed to touch ladies!'


I'll leave you to ponder this one....

Five early modern Persian Anatomical Illustrations

I found these beauties on the website of the United States National Library of Medicine. The original location is here. They are 17th or 18th century medical drawings from modern-day Iran or Pakistan.

Underneath each photo I have pasted the original description of the image as it appears on the NLM website. 

"...two drawings in ink and light-gray wash of skeletons, one leaning on a pedestal and the other leaning on a scythe. These two figures are clearly derivative from Vesalian illustrations."

"The female figure is of a pregnant woman. The woman holds back a flap of abdominal skin to expose the gravid uterus, while in her other hand she appears to hold a plant rather than a part of the body, though that could be interpreted as referring to the female genitalia. Surrounding the figure are portrayals of individual organs: at the top, two hearts; lower right, the lungs; something unidentified in lower left (labeled the opening of the vagina)."

"The male figure has his abdomen and chest opened to reveal the internal organs. His right hand holds a second set of genitalia, and there is a sketch of the liver and gallbladder in the upper left corner. The artistic conventions employed in the production of these two illustrations clearly indicates Western India as a place of production. The 16th to 18th-century European convention of picturing partially-dissected bodies as if they were alive, often with the obliging cadaver holding up parts of their own body for further inspection, can be seen here transferred to the Indian subcontinent. The anatomy of the exposed organs reflects indigenous Indian concepts as well as some medieval Galenic anatomy."

"The righthand figure shows the venous system, with the internal organs colored with opaque watercolors and some of the veins labeled. It is clearly derivative from the venous figures usually associated with the Tashrih-i Mansuri of Ibn Ilyas, examples of which can be seen in NLM (MS P 18) fol. 25b and (MS P 19) fol. 16b.

The lefthand figure has the bloodletting points labeled in a mixture of Persian and Arabic. This figure is clearly derivative from similar illustrations in late-medieval European manuscripts."

The Devil and Jesus

Hey Syphilites,

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4728821

I found this little pretty on the NLA (National Library of Australia) website. Those devils look like they are ready to party. Because everybody knows: cards + money under the bed + dying person in the bed = party.

Surf on over to the NLA digital collections - Heaps of good stuff there.

villa

villa
Originally uploaded by *!* || CHATO || *!*

This is a pretty awesome image by a guy named CHATO. This is his Flickr profile. I'm really getting into this Flickr thing....

Creepiest photo ever

This is the creepiest photo ever. I found it via flickr on the UA Archives. UA stands for Upper Arlington. Which is here. Why you need to know that, I don't know. 

UA Archives

This is the first part of the caption with the photo: 

"Dr. R. T. Ustik as an Italian organ grinder and Mrs. Will Butterworth as his monkey were voted the most comical costumed pair during Field Day in 1918. Dr. Ustik was one of the first few physicians in the Tri-Village area."


What I want to know: What the hell did Dr R.T. Ustik do with Mrs Will Butterworth's face? She looks like her left cheek is being sucked into a time-vortex. I'm horrified.


I'm pretty sure I saw Dr. Ustik the other day. He had not aged one day since 1918. He walked up to me, smelling of garlic, cupped my scrotum, glared me in the eye and asked in a high-pitched squeaking voice: 'Wheeerrrre is me monkey?' - That is when I fainted. I woke up with the lingering odour of garlic in my nostrils and a faint smile of horror on my lips. 

Crazy 50s 'What if the bomb falls?'-propaganda

Hey Syphilites,

In line with the earlier post with the 50s video on how to survive a nuclear attack there was something else I wanted to share with you.

I came across this jewel of an album over at From This Swamp, which celebrates 'Lovecraftian and Dystopian Music' 

The album is actually government issued and has two tracks on it describing how you will be dead if a bomb falls, but if, by some weird and warped long-shot chance you manage to stay alive, there are some things you should stock in your bomb shelter. 

You can find the original post here. 

The album also came with some images of a government pamphlet that were too good to keep from you. 

Feast your eyes on this:

Yup, weird. At least we are all now super-prepared. Thank baby Jesus!